What are your opinions on QT invertabrates?

[jwright]

I want to add some inverts to my tank - Snails and a couple of Cleaner shrimp to be specific. Is it necessary to QT these critters? Are they potential carriers of ICH?

Thanks for you opinions

John

 

[lando]

You do not need to QT inverts. You can put them in the main tank as will be just fine.

 

[quarryshark]

If they come from a fishless system, I agree that its not needed. Just don't add the water they come in.
But I must confess, I qt them anyway for a couple of weeks. Gives me a piece of mind with my past battles with ich. I once had some live sand from another system bring ich into my system. That came from a tank with fish hosts in it however.
Many LFS run copper in their fish system, so they keep inverts and corals in a separate fishless water system all together. Without fish hosts in that system, it is unlikely that they could carry trophonts.

 

[XXFirefighter]

No need to QT them...

Well I'm not one to talk.. I never used a QT before...

 

[cmor1701d]

No need to QT but be sure to acclimate slowly...

 

[tripper]

How do you recommend acclimating them? I have had trouble with acclimating cleaner shrimp.

The way I did it was to float the bag in the tank for 20 mins to temp acclimate them. Then I put them in a bucket and used a siphon to drip acclimate them for 45 mins. After that I netted them and dropped them in the tank. One of them died within the hour and the other was dead by the next morning.

I know it's not my water parameters because my peps are fine, but here they are:

Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: <10ppm
Phos: 0
PH: 8.2
Salinity: 1.023

Did I not acclimate them long enough?

tripper

 

[Nels22]

hard to say, i acclimated my cleaners by floating for ten min. then adding a cup of water every half hour, and away they went, and they are doing great. Had them for 3 weeks now.

 

[quarryshark]

Need to drip acclimate invert much slower than that. I usually set the flow as slow as possible and if the bucket fills up, simply remove some of the water from the bucket and continue. The acclimation for me usually takes about 3 hrs.
Check the SPG, PH, Ammonia and temp of the bucket, when they match with they readings in the tank you can then add them. With shrimp and especially starfish, make sure they are never exposed to air.

 

[RMPD109]

I float the bag for 15 min then start adding 1/2 cup of tank water every 5+ minutes for about 1 hr. I do my inverts for 1.5 hrs. You may need to dump some water along the way. Then net them out and put them in the tank. Have not had a loss yet. Added shrimp and turbos within the past 2 weeks.

 

[Phyl]

With mine I floated the bag for 15 and then started transferring water. I transferred a shot glass of water at a time every 5 minutes. If the bag fills I dump some out and keep going. I did this for about an hour. Test the water at the end of the hour and see where your PH & salinity are. If they're close, great and if they're not then keep going. You want your water parameters to match the holding water for the animal before transferring them. My concern about a bucket or other small holding container would be temperature loss (what's the point of floating [read: raise temperature in bag] only to put them in a container of great heat loss and slow drip them? You may as well drip them first and then float them, IMO).

 

[quarryshark]

My concern about a bucket or other small holding container would be temperature loss (what's the point of floating [read: raise temperature in bag] only to put them in a container of great heat loss and slow drip them?

You can put a small heater in the container.
Slow drip is a good habit to get into. Expecally when it comes to more sensative inverts like starfish.

 

[Phyl]

The heater in the acclimation container makes sense... but I've never seen it recommended before now. I'll have to think about that. Not sure that I currently own a heater small enough for the task.